Living the Easter spirit

THOUGHTS AND VIEWS

Fr. Roy Cimagala

THE joyous celebration of Easter Sunday clearly tells us that Christ indeed as risen! That’s why we sing, Alleluia, alleluia. As a psalm would put it: “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (118,24)
    With his resurrection, he has conquered sin and death, and has given us a new life in him. We are now a new creation, with the power from Christ to conquer sin and death and everything else that is not in keeping with our dignity as children of God.
    As St. Paul would put it, “If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” (Rom 6,8) And he continued, “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.” (6,9)
    And so, we have every reason that we can live forever in Christ over whom death no longer has dominion. In spite of whatever, we have every reason to be happy and confident, as long as we are faithful to Christ.
    With the celebration of Easter, we are told by our Christian faith that we are made new. We are now a new creation. And to make ourselves new again after we have fallen into sin and thus putting ourselves in the system of getting old and dying, we need to be forgiven, to receive God’s mercy.
    Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection actually represent the ultimate of divine mercy and forgiveness. His death represents his bearing and assuming all the sins of men, from that of Adam and Eve to the last sin that still has to be committed, of the last man who still has to be born. His resurrection represents his victory over sin and death. His death and resurrection therefore comprise the ultimate of divine mercy.
    There’s just a very interesting passage in the Book of Lamentation in the Old Testament that can give more forcefulness to this divine mercy that is responsible for making us a new creation.
    It says: “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassion fails not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” (Lam 3,22-23)
    Let’s remember that in this Easter season, we are called to become an Easter person. And the way is laid open for us to be so. It’s for us to take it up and go the distance.
    To be an Easter person is first of all a gift from God. It’s his divine will for us, since we are his image and likeness, and adopted children of his. For sure, we achieve the fullness of our being Easter persons in heaven. But here on earth, we need to work it out. We have to move toward it.
    The grace for this purpose is given to us abundantly. Everything that we need to attain this goal is provided by God’s providence. But we have to correspond. New wine requires new wineskins too. And as St. Augustine once said: “He who created us without us, cannot save us without us.”
    To be an Easter person is for us to realize that as persons we need to unify and integrate all the parts and aspects of our life, with God through Christ in the Spirit as the principle, means and end of such unity and integration. What we should try to avoid is to be fragmented in these parts and aspects. In other words, it is for us to live a unity of life in Christ.
    Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THOUGHTS AND VIEWS

Let’s have complete  trust in God

Fr. Roy Cimagala

“FOR the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.” (Jn 3,34) With these words of Christ, we are made to understand that Christ is the word of God who would lead us to eternal life. The immediate conclusion that we can derive from these words is that we should have full trust in God’s providence.
    In a sense, while we try our best to make our own life and to shape it according to our freedom, we need to understand that our life can only be properly lived and can be led to its proper end when conformed to God’s will and ways.    
    We need to understand that the ultimate reason we have freedom is for us to freely follow God’s will, for that would constitute the true essence of love which is the essence of God, and which is also meant for us since we have been created in God’s image and likeness. While we have that popular saying, “Like father, like son,” we can also say, “Like God, like man.”
It is for this reason that we should really believe in Christ, since he is “the way, the truth, and the life, no one goes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14,6) That is also why he also said, as if begging us as well as reassuring us, “You believe in God, believe also in me.” (Jn 14,1)
    We cannot deny that all our life, we would always be hounded by our weaknesses, challenges, difficulties, trials, temptations and, of course, our sins, but as long as we go to Christ, things would just be made right. Only in this way can we aspire to be faithful and live in confidence, peace and joy despite whatever.
    We should just strengthen our faith in God through Christ in the Spirit, especially because it is unavoidable that we would encounter in our life forms of hatred, persecution, misunderstanding, and so, we would have to wage continuing struggle.
    Christ already warned us about this. “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also,” he said. (Jn 15,20) In another instance he also said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33)
So we need to enliven our faith, always renewing it since we all know that our profession of faith and trust in God, no matter how fervently said, can only go so far. We need to continually renew our faith in order to trust God’s will and ways when we encounter seemingly unbearable predicaments.
    Remember that episode of the apostles in a boat that was about to sink because of the big waves. (cfr. Mt 8,23-27) Christ reproached them for their lack of faith. And in that parable of the wheat and the weeds, (cfr. Mt 13,24-30) Christ was clearly telling them and us that we should just go on doing a lot of good even if we are disturbed by many evils, because in the end Christ would make the proper judgment.
    He assures us that with him we will never work in vain and everything would just work out for the good. (cfr. Is 65,23; Rom 8,28) He assures us that as St. Teresa of Avila once said, he can write straight with crooked lines.
The whole idea is that we should just keep a strong faith and trust in God’s will and ways. -- Email: roycimagala@gmail.com